The Wagtail's Cuckoo
by Syroc
Summary: The night after that fateful fire, things didn't exactly happen as they should have. Shirou was more gravely wounded. Avalon didn't work as fast. Kiritsugu panicked, and brought him to the leading medical firm in the world: MBI. And then things happened.
1. Chapter 1

**The Wagtail's Cuckoo: One**

His eyes hurt, and he would have said that his body felt as if it had been flayed and then roasted if he had ever had to conceive of such a thing before that moment. It felt as if every inch of his body was burned.

Happily, however, even this was a vast improvement over the sensation that had burned itself into his memories. Walking through burning streets, ignoring screams of pain or silent pleas for help. Flesh melting or burning with the heat of the fire that raged around them. The terrible fire raged all around him, burning wood and stone and flesh and bone. It burned inside of him, and he was forced to leave much of himself behind in order to save himself from it. He gave it everything: his memories, his hopes, his fears, his dreams, even the things that he himself was not aware of. They were all fed into the fire and replaced by a single, powerful desire: to survive.

But in the end, even this was not enough. His desperate dash through the hellish streets of his neighborhood became slower and more laborious with each step,

A distant shadow of a hand reaching for an infernal sun...

Falling to his knees, crawling through the burning ashes...

A final resignation, the expectation of defeat in the face of impossible odds...

No despair, no fear. Just quiet acceptance of his fate. Surrender.

And then a smiling face, pure joy as a man lifted him from the ashes and into safety.

Those were the only two things he remembered: the fire, and the joy that one man had when he had found someone still alive amidst all that carnage.

And now here he was, with aching eyes and burning body, starting up into the blinding whiteness of the hospital's ceiling.

"Urgh," he said, and tried to sit up.

"Hey, settle down there kid," a female voice said, and the boy turned instinctively towards the sound. A white-haired woman in a lab-coat was looking up at him from her previous study of a clipboard. "You might ruin the bandages."

The boy froze, and realized that he was indeed covered in bandages. He wouldn't have known it, but he was very fortunate about this. Otherwise someone might have noticed how extraordinarily fast his skin was healing.

"Agh," he said in acquiescence, and when he realized that he had only managed another unintelligible grunt he made do with a small nod. He laid back down on the bed, but continued to watch the woman.

She took a quick look back down at her clipboard, and then put it face-down on her lap with a small sigh.

"Alright, let's get this over with. My name is Takami Sahashi, and you're in Shin-Tokyo right now getting some very intense care. Now, before we go any further I need to ask you some questions. Is that alright with you?"

The boy wanted to say that his throat hurt, but the woman hadn't asked about that.

"'s," he said instead, the hiss of his rasp managing to convey his agreement. Luckily the woman seemed to catch his meaning because she went right on to ask her questions.

"Does the name Emiya Kiritsugu mean anything to you?" She asked.

"Ngh," he grunted again, and with a growing annoyance realized that his voice stubbornly refused to work with him. Instead, he merely shook his head.

"Definitely not your father, then?" she asked, fishing for an answer. "Maybe an uncle, ridiculously elder brother?"

"'din'ngh," the boy tried to say 'I don't know', but he still couldn't quite manage it. The effort of it hurt his throat. It seemed that for now, words would not suffice. Another shake of the head.

"I thought not," the woman said, nodding to herself. "His DNA profile looks nothing like yours."

She took a moment to look back down at her clipboard, taking note of something or other.

"Mmhmmm..." she hummed quietly, and then looked back up. "Alright then, what's your name?"

The boy briefly tried to think of a way to tell Takami his name without actually saying it because his throat was really hurting, but soon gave up. It seemed a shame that even with so little about himself still intact that conveying who he was would be so difficult.

Oh well.

"Shh," he tried to say the letters that made up his name despite the pain it caused him. "Shheee,"

"It's okay, you don't have tell me right now," the woman said, looking concerned about the way his voice rasped.

"Shii-roou," the boy croaked, and coughed quietly.

"Shirou?" the woman repeated with much more articulation. The boy nodded, and settled back down once more. "I suppose a last name would be too much for now. Oh well, at least we don't have to put 'John Doe' on your charts anymore. You just rest up for now, okay, Shirou-kun? You'll be better soon, we'll make sure of it."

Shirou nodded tiredly, and closed his eyes and tried to go so sleep. As he did so, he couldn't help but overhear the woman talk to herself once more.

"_Jeez, that kid is a wreck_," she said quietly, but not quietly enough. "_I guess it's no wonder nobody else survived. I hope mom and dad weren't there when it happened. Ugh, I hate this_..."

Her voice echoed away into nothingness as sleep took him. It left him alone with his thoughts, with his memories.

In his dreams, the fire still burned. He still ran through them, trying desperately to avoid the same fate of those around him. Failed to do so, and fell.

A lone survivor.

Yes, that made sense.

It was only through chance that he was saved, after all.

A wave of gratitude toward his unknown savior surged through him, along with something else. Something that he hadn't quite processed at the time but now could. It was something that he had thought he'd lost in the fire: want. Desire. Aspiration.

He wanted that smile for himself.

*_Later That Week!_*

Uzume wasn't in the habit of checking in at the desk when she wanted to visit Chiho.

Having to deal with Higa's secretary over the phone was bad enough: she didn't want to risk having the man himself soil her time with her precious Ashikabi with his demands in person. Much easier and better to just let herself in through a window in one of the empty rooms and then make her way to her Ashikabi's room on her own terms.

There was a minor complication, however, in that the room in which she normally snuck through wasn't empty this time.

It was bound to happen sometime. After all, this was a hospital. And humans were pretty squishy. It was hardly surprising that they would manage to hurt themselves at one point in time or another. So the surprise wasn't in that the room was occupied.

Instead, it was the occupant that surprised and worried her.

Laying there quietly, with keen brown eyes that poked out from a mask of bandages watching her like a hawk, was a young boy or girl. She wasn't sure whether it was a boy or a girl because they were covered in bandages that covered most of their body. Patches of dark and blistered skin surrounded those eyes that seemed riveted on her, which served only to make her more uncomfortable.

"Err, heya," she greeted with some embarrassment. "Sorry to burst in like this. I'll be out of your hair in a second."

"It's fine," the Boy(?) said with a raspy voice, not at all bothered that some strange woman had just jumped through the window of his room. "I was just sleeping."

Uzume raised an eyebrow at this. His statement seemed paradoxical to her: if someone had woken her up she certainly wouldn't be fine about it. But then again, she recognized that she might be a minority in this matter. The way Izumo House was filling up with such energetic people lately, as fun as it they could be, was slowly putting an end to her days of sleeping in past noon and then wasting the rest of the day in nothing but her underwear.

"Heh. You're weird, kid," she stated and gave him a smile. "What's your name?"

"Shirou," the boy said simply, still watching her. "What are you doing here?"

"Heh, what do healthy people do in a hospital?" Uzume said, still grinning. "I'm visiting someone!"

"Oh," Shirou said, and his eyes turned downward for a moment. He sounded thoughtful. "I see."

Uzume thought that his answer was strange. Very, very strange. It was as if he was making a note of this and filing it away for later. As if he had never encountered this information before.

But that couldn't be right.

She looked around the room, hoping to find something that would help her make this situation less awkward. A stuffed animal from a worried parent. A favored toy from a loving sibling. A card from a childhood friend. Flowers. Chocolate. Something she could tease him about. Something that would make him laugh or smile. Something that would make him forget that he was in a hospital covered in bandages.

But there was nothing.

The room was as empty as it had been the last time she had been there except for the boy himself. If someone removed him from this room, there would never be any sign that he had ever been there.

The question was out of her mouth before she could stop it.

"Are you here alone?" she asked, trying not to sound overly concerned.

The boy gave her a small nod.

"Yes, of course," he said casually, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "I was the only survivor."

Uzume's blood ran cold at that, the implication rocking her down to her foundations. She'd known that the Sekirei Plan was getting dangerous, but surely it wasn't this bad, was it?

"Have you been here long?" she asked, though she didn't know why. She didn't want to know the answer. She didn't want to know about this situation. As selfish as it sounded, she wished that this boy had been in a different room today.

"A few days," he answered.

"And nobody's come to visit you at all?"

"The nurses come and help me out," the boy said, as if that counted. "And the doctor stopped by yesterday to see how I was doing.

"But nobody else? Not even your mom or dad?"

"No," Shirou said, not an ounce of sadness in his voice. "I think they're dead."

Uzume stared at the boy, amazed and horrified at the blunt way he talked about his own parent's death.

It had to be an act. He had to be lying. He had to be mistaken.

But somehow, she didn't think any of these possibilities were true. There was no hesitation in his answers, not an ounce of doubt. He knew these things to be true, and he wasn't letting it bother him.

He was different from other humans.

"Shirou-kun, would you like to meet a friend of mine?"

She didn't know that he couldn't say 'no' to her request, any more than Takami could have known that he would answer her questions despite the pain it caused him.

But they would both be glad of that, later.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Wagtail's Cuckoo: Two**

The boy who called himself Shirou found himself smiling as Uzume wheeled his bed out into the hallway and then began running through the halls.

Nurses and some of the more ambulatory patients scrambled to get out of their way, though Uzume made sure that she gave them ample time by shouting for them to do so.

He had no way to know that this kind of behaviour was generally frowned upon by the staff, and so he was able to enjoy the sensation of speed as doors whizzed past on either side. He would no doubt have asked what the problem was if the security guards that rushed after them had caught up with them before they rounded a corner and Uzume did something very fast and very complex that somehow whisked Shirou out of his bed and into a nearby room while silently closing the door behind her.

The rogue bed continued rolling down the hallway. A few moments later a series of rapid footfalls running past the door after it heralded the coming and passing of the guards that had been following them.

It took Shirou a moment to realize just what had happened, and when he did he realized that Uzume had never picked him up nor had she ever put him down. He was about to look down to see what was holding up when something else happened.

"Uzume?" a female voice said, sounding confused. "Is that you? And... Uzume, who is this?"

Shirou focussed instead on the new voice, and spotted a young women with brown hair and eyes. She was worryingly pale, as if she had been very sick for a very long time. The fact that she was in the same ward of the hospital as he was lent some credit to this assumption.

"Ah, Chiho," Uzume greeted as a small blush formed on her cheeks. "Sorry to burst in like this. Oh, and this is Shirou-kun!"

"Hello," the boy said neutrally, watching the young woman with the same intensity that he had Uzume.

"Hello, Shirou-san," Chiho said uncertainly, giving her Sekirei an uncertain glance. "Are you a friend of Uzume's?"

"I don't think so," Shirou said slowly, mulling over the question. He didn't have any memories from before the fire, so it was possible that they had known eachother, and she merely hadn't recognised him under all the bandages. Safer to stick with the truth, though. "She woke me up when she snuck into my room, though."

"Ahahaha!" Uzume laughed nervously, her blush intensifying. "You say some strange things, bro!"

"Uzume..." Chiho had a mildly chiding tone in her voice as she said the name.

Shirou realized that he might have just gotten his friend(?) in trouble, and quickly tried to salvage the situation.

"Ah, but I'm sure that I wouldn't be doing anything other than resting!" he assured the young woman. "The doctor said I would have to do that for a few weeks, so I'm certain that this won't matter!"

"Uzume..." Chiho said again, this time sounding even more reproachful, and a disappointed looked entered her face.

"You're not helping, Shirou!" Uzume whispered to him urgently.

Shirou panicked a bit upon hearing this, and he began wracking his mind for anything that might help Uzume out of the situation he had gotten her into.

"I wanted to come with her," he said desperately. A sudden flash of inspiration struck him as he recalled his earlier conversation with Uzume. "Nobody's come to visit me since I got here!" He all but shouted.

Which seemed to be exactly the right thing to say, because Chiho's attention immediately shifted from Uzume to him and her expression softened visibly.

"Oh," she said quietly, and seemed to look at him in a new light. "I'm very sorry to hear that, Shirou-kun."

Relief flooded through Shirou, and he allowed himself to relax somewhat.

"Ah, it's alright," he said, nodding to himself. "At least I'm still alive."

He'd meant the statement to be cheerful, maybe even optimistic. After all, he _had_ survived. Wasn't that what mattered? What else could he want?

Chiho, however, seemed to disagree.

"But what about your parents, our grandparents or-" she trailed off slowly when she saw Uzume shaking her head slowly

"I don't know," the boy said calmly. "If they survived, no one's told me."

Chiho's expression softened even further, and Uzume began to relax.

"I thought that the two of you might be able to keep each other company when I'm not around," she suggested hesitantly.

"Of course!" Chiho agreed hastily, nodding as well. "You can visit me whenever you want, Shirou-kun!"

"Thank you," Shirou said, happy that he had managed to defuse the situation.

"Eheh, you might have to visit him, Chiho," Uzume pointed out, and gave a gentle pat on Shirou's shoulder hat nevertheless made him wince. "I don't think he's very mobile right now."

"Oh," the young woman said, and nodded in understanding. "Well, I can do that too. Would you like that, Shirou-kun?"

Shirou looked at Chiho, full of cheerful kindness, and then towards Uzume, who radiated sympathetic optimism and... well, he couldn't tell. But she was looking Chiho is a strange way.

They wanted this. They wanted to keep him company.

Who was he to argue?

"Yes," he said, and gave a smile. "I think that I would like that."

"Then it's settled!" Chiho said, and returned his own smile with one that would have put the sun to shame. "Until then, how about we have some fun?"

Time moved differently with Uzume and Chiho, Shirou noted with some interest. It was faster, for one thing. It snuck away when he wasn't mindful of it, and somehow minutes turned into hours, and the midday sun began sinking below the horizon. He knew, in a clinical sense, that this meant that he had spent several hours with the two young women.

His room had little in the way of distractions, and while the television had been intended to entertain him he found that there simply wasn't anything on it that could occupy his attention very long. So more often than not, he did without it. He felt every minute of every day while awake.

But here, with the woman who had burst in through his window and woken him up and her friend, he was scarcely aware of anything other than them, and their conversations, and their laughter, and their happiness. The passing of time didn't stand a chance in comparison.

It was sometime during all this time-warping fun and happiness that he was apparently adopted by the two. Or rather, they asked for him to call them 'onee-chan'. Apparently there was something especially enchanting about the way he said it, because whenever he addressed one of them in this way the other would coo and smile at them both.

Shirou didn't have much room for comparison, seeing as he only had a few days of recollection, but he was pretty certain that today had been one of the better days of his life, remembered or otherwise.

But somehow even this felt insufficient. He didn't want to leave. But Chiho had yawned, and through some mystic power he had as well. Which seemed to break the spell which had kept them all there, because Uzume was rising to her feet saying how late it was getting and that she would have to leave soon in order to take care of something.

Before he knew it he was lifted from the bed (again through mysterious circumstances. He would have to investigate that,) and whisked out of the room while Uzume made hasty but fond farewells, and he did the same.

The hallways were emptier and darker than he remembered them being the last time, and shadows were beginning to creep in where the sunlight could no longer augment the ceiling lights. But then again it _was_ getting late, and he _had_ been moving very fast. It was quite possible that it was normal for the hallways to be this empty.

Well, _almost_ empty.

As if waiting for them, a grim-faced man in an immaculately tailored white suit stood expectantly. Within the confines of his mind, Shirou named him The Serious Man. He didn't know why he did, but it seemed very appropriate for some reason.

The Serious Man was flanked on one side by another man in a dark suit and spectacles, while on the other a grey-haired woman in an elaborate dress waited patiently. They were respectively named the Fancy Man and Woman by Shirou.

Uzume froze instantly when she spotted them, and Shirou felt himself become drawn closer to her protectively. (He still didn't know how she was doing it, though, as he could clearly see both her hands.)

They, for their part, seemed to not react at all save for a cursory nod to acknowledge their presence.

"Uzume," The Serious Man said, narrowing his eyes at her. "I thought that you might have been responsible for the earlier disturbance."

Uzume said nothing, though whatever it was that was holding Shirou aloft tensed slightly.

The Serious Man seemed to notice this, and a tiny smirk formed on his mouth.

"Do not cause any further disturbances here, or my staff might have trouble keeping up with their patients," he said menacingly. "Am I understood?"

"Yes," Uzume said terse, even as she held Shirou closer to her.

He looked down and seemed to notice Shirou for the first time, and his smirk disappeared. It was replaced by a thoughtful frown, as if he was considering a mystery that was just eluding him.

"In the meantime, restrain yourself from kidnapping the other patients here, _especially_ this one," he continued, never removing his eyes from Shirou. "I do not want to give any reason for MBI to remove him from our care or investigate our premises. Until he is released, do not approach him again."

"You're all heart, Higa," Uzume accused, though she seemed to instantly regret doing so. "He hasn't got anyone left in the world!"

"Not my concern," The Serious Man dismissed errantly.

Shirou, on the other hand, was alarmed at this new development.

"Ah," he said, trying to pierce through the grim atmosphere that was sinking in. "I don't mind. I like Uzume-nee and Chiho-nee."

The Serious Man raised an eyebrow in surprise

"You can talk," he said, as if this shouldn't have been the case. "How curious. I was under the impression that you were crippled by your injuries."

Shirou shrugged, unsure of what else he could do.

"I got better," he stated simply.

"So it would seem," The Serious Man turned and waved the two of them away even as he went about his own business. "Since the boy has no objection to you, I don't care what you do with him provided it does not bring MBI's attention down on me."

With that said, The Serious Man and the Fancy Man and Woman left them.

They watched the three of them leave with varying levels of bewilderment and anger. Soon enough they were alone again, and at last his one-chan relaxed a bit.

"I hate that man," Uzume grumbled as she made her way back over to his room.

Shirou was a simple, easily influenced creature.

If his onee-chan hated someone, then there had to be a reason for it. So he resolved himself to follow her example. He decided then and there that he hated The Serious Man as well.

It seemed like the thing to do.


	3. Chapter 3

**The Wagtail's Cuckoo: Three**

"I must say, Shirou-kun," the doctor said as the nurses peeled away the bandages around his face, at first with practiced care and then, when she realized that the horrific burns the boy was supposed to have simply weren't there, with perplexed speed. "The rate at which you've recovered is nothing short of miraculous!"

It had been a few days since Shirou had first met Chiho. The very next day, she had stopped by his room, and though she had been stuck in a wheelchair and he had been under orders not to leave his bed they still managed to pass the time away easily enough. It had been just like the day before, and it had been magnificent. He'd been thrilled when she'd returned the next day, and the day after that. After days of solitude, he found that he enjoyed the company of his onee-chan.

He'd begun to expect their time together, and had been loath to allow the nurses to change his bandages for fear it would impinge on that time. When they discovered that his horrendous burns had almost completely disappeared, the doctor had been summoned.

Consultations and disbelief had ensued. It was now a day later, and everyone was thoroughly certain that there had been no mistake.

Shirou had healed.

"Is it?" the boy said, somewhat relieved that at last he wouldn't have to be covered from tip to toe in bandages. "Well, that's nice."

"Shirou-kun, I don't think you understand the magnitude of how amazing this is," the doctor said, somewhat reproachfully. "Most people never recover from the kind of wounds you had. We thought we would have to give you extensive skin-grafts and physical therapy in order to make you better. You might not have left our care for years. But you don't need any of that!"

Shirou blinked at this new information, and made a thoughtful frown. There was a serious matter was weighing heavily on his mind, and this development might be just be the answer to all his troubles. It could solve everything.

He took a deep breath, and asked the one questioned he yearned to ask.

"Does this mean that I can visit someone?" he enquired earnestly.

"What? Who would you- wait, have you remembered something from before the fire?" the doctor asked eagerly, and though Shirou couldn't recognize it the excitement of what the boy's miraculous healing might mean for him. Physical _and_ mental healing? The possibilities were endless.

At his sides, the bewildered nurses decided that since his head seemed to be wholly healed the rest of him probably was as well, and instead of slowly unwrapping him like a mummy they simply cut him free with surgical scissors. It wasn't long before Shirou was out of his bandages and thoroughly naked.

"No, but I want to visit someone I met here," Shirou explained.

"Oh," the doctor said, clearly disappointed with this answer. Despite his disappointment, however, he was "I suppose it should be possible. You'll just have to check in with the nurse at the desk to make sure that your friend agrees

Shirou scrunched up his brow in confusion at this.

"But Chiho-nee told me I could visit whenever I wanted to," he pointed out cautiously.

"Eh? Chiho-nee?" the man seemed confused at the honorific. "Shirou-kun, I thought you didn't have any relatives-"

"He doesn't," a female voice informed him from the doorway, and Shirou recognized it from before. "We confirmed as much this morning."

The doctor and the nurses turned as one to face the newcomer, though Shirou merely gave a nod of acknowledgement in her direction.

There, standing in the doorway, was Takami Sahashi.

"Excuse me, who are you and what are you doing here?" the doctor demanded.

"Good afternoon, Sahashi-san," Shirou greeted with a nod.

"Hello Shirou," Takami Sahashi greeted in return. "I'm glad to see that you've recovered so quickly."

"It's miraculous," Shirou dutifully informed her.

"Yes, I can see that much," Takami said, her mouth quirking into an amused grin. "I think I might have to ask you a few more questions later if that's alright with you, Shirou-kun."

"That's fine," Shirou agreed with a nod. He didn't have a reason to say no.

"Now see here just a minute!" the doctor shouted, by then thoroughly annoyed at having been ignored for so long. "Who do you think you are, bursting into this room and talking to my patient like-"

"Takami Sahashi, head of the MBI research division," the white-haired woman interrupted calmly. "I cleared Shirou to be transferred here in the first place. You could say he was _my_patient before he was yours."

"Eh?" the man looked taken aback at this notion, but quickly rallied once more behind a shield of logic. "W-well, that hardly matters _now_, does it?"

"Maybe. We'll see," Takami returned her attention to Shirou. "You said you wanted to visit someone?"

"Yes. Chiho-nee," the boy answered. "She said I could visit her whenever I wanted."

The scientist smiled, seeming genuinely satisfied that the boy she had thought to be a hopeless case only a week ago had sprung back so quickly.

"Well then. How about you go do that, and I'll talk to this grump while you're gone?" she suggested knowingly.

This set the doctor off once more, as he immediately left Shirou's side in order to stand face-to-face with Takami

"You can't do that! This boy is under my care, and he is not well enough to-"

"Wow, would you look at him go. Young men really do spring back into action, don't they?" Takami said with mock-amazement.

Shirou, once free from the doctor's attention, climbed out of the bed and hastily slipped on a hospital gown. He didn't even wait for the nurses to tie up his back end before bolting out the door.

"Eh?" the doctor grunted, turning to see what Takami was referring to. "No, Shirou! Come back here right now!"

"Here, doctor-san," Takami said, grabbing his wrist to prevent him from following after Shirou. "How about we have a talk while Shirou-kun visits his friend, yes?"

"What are you-"

The voices trailed off as Shirou bounded away, eager to visit his onee-chan.

The hallways passed by in a blur as he ran through them, agilely dodging past minor obstructions like people or beds or various medical equipment. He remembered the exact course that Uzume had wended through them, and now he retraced it with speed borne of eagerness.

Soon enough he was standing in front of Chiho's door, somewhat breathless from his mad dash but otherwise none the worse for wear.

He paused only for a moment to catch his breath before he knocked at her door.

"_Come in,_" came Chiho's voice from the other side.

Shirou did as he was bid, and all but rushed into the room.

Chiho was sitting in her bed, just as she had been the last time he had been there, with a confused look on her face. She stared at him, as if trying to recognize him.

"Err, hello," she said uncertainly. "Can I help you?"

For a moment Shirou felt a sudden sinking feeling in his stomach at the question before he realized that this was the first time that she had ever seen his face. He felt somewhat better, but the feeling in his stomach was still there.

He did not like it. He wished it would go away.

For now, he would ignore it.

"Good afternoon, Chiho-nee," he greeted, and allowed none of his apprehension show.

For a moment Chiho looked confused. And then recognition dawned on her, and her face lit up like the sun.

"Shirou-kun!" the young woman said with a gasp. She seemed to suddenly realize "Ah! I'm so sorry I didn't recognize you without your bandages! Come here and let me look at you!"

Shirou smiled, and hastened to obey. He scrabbled onto her bed, and nestled himself onto her lap with not a small amount of satisfaction. He sat with his shoulder to her chest, as he had wanted to do for some time. It just seemed like the thing to do, and felt so very _right_.

Chiho, for her part, merely giggled in response as he made himself comfortable. But soon enough her eyes took notice of something, and her mouth quirked up into an almost mischievous grin.

"Shirou," she said innocently. "Would you mind if I touched your head?"

The boy in question craned his head to look at Chiho for a moment, silently asking her just what she wanted to do with his head that she would need to ask permission before shrugging.

"Sure," he agreed nonchalantly, though he was curious as to just what she was up.

Chiho wasted no time, as he had no sooner granted her permission than she had placed a hand on his head and begun to lightly rub it.

"Fuwaah," She gasped as she continued to rub his head. "You have peach-fuzz hair!" she giggled. "You're like a little monk, Shirou-kun! We should ask Uzume to make you a costume for the next time she's here!"

"But it'll grow back soon," Shirou pointed out, even as he considered the prospect. "Unless you think I should keep it like this."

"Hmmm," she hummed contemplatively. The young woman turned him around so that she could look him in the face. "No, Shirou-kun should let his hair grow out a bit before he cuts it. Red hair is too rare not to let it show!"

"But then I wouldn't be able to be a monk," the boy pointed out, frowning.

"Heh, don't worry," Chiho assured him, and reached out towards her nightstand and pulled out a cell-phone. "Uzume is a magician when it comes to costumes."

She dialled a number into the phone, and then held it to her ear. Shirou strained his hearing in order to listen in on whatever conversation took place, but even as close as he was he couldn't hear much.

"Uzume!" Chiho greeted eagerly, and rubbed Shirou's head once more for good measure. "Are you busy today?"

The cell phone whispered unintelligibly into Chiho's ear, much to Shirou's displeasure.

"No? Perfect! There's something you have to see," she said excitedly. "Oh, and bring your measuring tape."

*_Later_*

"Dang bro, you clean up _good_," Uzume said, ending with an appreciative whistle and a grin.

"Thank you," Shirou said. "It surprised me as well."

This earned him a titter from his onee-chans, who were taking turns both fussing and measuring him. The latter of which was being done with a certain amount of care, considering Shirou's lack of real clothing.

"I mean, I thought you'd only been here a few days, from what you said when we met. I didn't know you were so close to being healed."

"But I _have_ been here for only a few days," Shirou said,

Uzume paused, confused by his statement.

"But, if you've only been here a few days, then how can you be better already?" she asked.

"Actually, that's what I was going to ask," Takami cut in from the doorway. Shirou was beginning to think that the woman was following him around and _waiting_ for the most opportune moment to stop by. Unseen by all, however, Uzume had stiffened and her eyes had gone wide upon hearing the scientist's voice. "Though I also have some good news."

"Oh?" Chiho said, perking up at this. "Good news?"

"Yes," Takami nodded as she said this. "Shirou-kun, since you're all healed up there's no point in keeping you here anymore. You'll be released at the end of the day, and after that I'll be in charge of finding you a new home."

Shirou froze, and in that moment the world shattered.

"I- I'm leaving the hospital?" Shirou asked, and the sinking feeling from before returned with a vengeance.

"I'm afraid so, Shirou-kun," Takami confirmed. "That's what happens when people get better at a hospital: they leave."

Shirou processed this information, and filed it away for later use. However, it was promptly overridden by a more pressing issue.

"But I don't want to leave Chiho-nee and Uzume-nee!" Shirou all but wailed, and possessively latched onto Chiho.

"Shirou..." the sick woman said gently, and would have proceeded to attempt to say something that would make him feel better about leaving them behind.

"No?" Takami said instead, as if waiting for that moment. "Well then, how would you like to live with them?"

"What?" both Chiho and Uzume squawked in surprise.

"Yes," Shirou answered without hesitation, a little surprised at the new development himself.

"_W-w-wait a minute!"_ Uzume stammered out desperately, flailing her arms to get everyone's attention. "Takami, this is crazy! I can't take care of a kid! I don't know how! I don't have a job! I live at a hostel!"

"Oh, I'm sure your landlord wouldn't object if you explained little Shirou's situation to her," Takami reasoned. "And MBI would of course compensate you for taking care of little Shirou while we perform some tests on him."

"Tests?" Chiho asked, sounding alarmed at this. "What tests?"

"Nothing serious, we just want a few samples from Shirou to begin with," Takami placated. "We just want to trace his heritage."

"You can't be serious about this, Takami!" Uzume huffed. "Shirou isn't a sack of potatoes to be tossed at us, you know!"

"Why would you want to toss me anywhere...?" Shirou asked quietly, genuinely curious.

"Because it's the lesser evil," Takami said resolutely. "I've got orders from on high to investigate Shirou. If you two won't take care of him, then rest assured that somebody in the R&D-department of MBI _will_."

Uzume opened her mouth to protest, and then closed it. Then she opened it again, and then closed it again. Words seemed to be failing her at the moment.

It was up to Chiho to be the voice of reason.

"Well, if those are his choices, why can Shirou not simply stay here?" she asked innocently.

"Because as much as I don't like this, little Shirou here is a bit of an anomaly," Takami explained. "The main reason we want to study him is to find out if he's connected to a certain species of bird."

For a moment nobody said anything. And then, almost at the same time, Uzume and Chiho both gave out a quiet 'oohhh' of realization as they found out just what Takami was talking about.

Shirou, on the other hand, looked at Takami as if she had grown a second head.

"Are you saying my parents were birds?" Shirou asked, and even though he was emotionally scarred and somewhat inept at social matters he managed to convey that this notion was one of the dumbest things ever said. Of all time.

Takami felt an eyebrow twitch just for a moment as she was sassed by a kid.

"No, Shirou. I'm not," She patiently answered, before addressing Uzume once again. "As a personal 'thank you' for your help in this matter, I'd be willing to offer medical aid for Chiho Hidaka. With our technology, I'm confident we could find a cure for her disease in a relatively short space of time."

"I- No- wait, _what?_" Uzume sputtered, sounding both angered and confused. "You can't just offer that! That's insane! W, why wouldn't you offer before now? No, wait! You're_blackmailing us!_"

"Uzume's right," Chiho added. "This does sound like extortion."

"That's because it is," Takami agreed, nodding along. "Stick _and_ carrot, ladies. I'd rather Shirou was living with someone he liked rather than someone he doesn't know."

"B, but we don't know a think about raising a child!" Uzume protested feebly.

Takami snorted.

"Trust me, raising kids is not as difficult as people think," she assured the two of them. "If it was, parents wouldn't be able to do it. And luckily for the two of you most of the difficult work has already been taken care of as well. No walking around with him inside you for nine-months," she grinned mischievously. "Though how you'd manage to get _that_ way in the first place would be a thing for the books."

Both Chiho and Uzume blushed intensely at this as they studied the floor in order to hide their embarrassment. Although the two had been together for some time, they had yet to ever progress to _that_ yet, and clearly the idea of it was enough to fluster them more than a little.

Uzume, however, had the good fortune of having been in the presence of Minato Sahashi for prolonged periods of time, and even that was enough to inoculate even the most reclusive of shrinking violets against the embarrassment of sex. Really, a sexually active young man followed night and day by cheesecake? Anyone would get bored with it.

And so it wasn't very long before she recovered from her flustered state.

"Eheh, A-and the, ugh..." She said with a slight stutter, before frowning and looking pointedly at Shirou. "The _y'know_."

Takami shrugged.

"Considering just where you're living I don't think that will be much of a problem," she countered easily. "Your landlord likes to keep _that_ at an arm's length, if I recall."

"Well..." Uzume started, and realized that she didn't have anything else to add.

She looked over at Chiho, who looked uncertain.

The sick woman in turn glanced over at Shirou with a contemplative look, watching him as he raptly listened in on their conversation with a look of bemusement. She did that for a few moments before she seemed to arrive at some kind of decision.

She nodded at Uzume, and fondly rubbed Shirou's head.

"It would be an earlier start on a family than I expected," she said, and smiled that kind smile that Uzume had fallen in love with. "But I'm sure we'll manage."

The Sekirei remained uncertain for a moment. She still wanted to protest, as she didn't the boy who had only just recovered from one ordeal to become entangle with yet another, even if it was indirectly. And, of course, she _really_ didn't know to raise kids. Although, she supposed that if she really _had_ to she could ask Minato and the girls for some tips. They'd have to be at least _somewhat_ experienced, what with Kuu-chan and all that.

But there was also the promise that they would look for a cure for Chiho. And that… well, just what was that worth to her?

"_Anything,_" she answered silently.

She looked over at Shirou, and her resolved crumbled when she saw his hopeful expression.

"Ggh," she said, and pushed him over to Chiho. "You're not allowed to look at me like that! I can't say 'no' to that! It'd be like kicking a puppy!" she complained.

Takami smiled at this.

"So I take it that means you accept my offer?"

Uzume sighed quietly, and nodded.

"Yeah," she said, sounding somewhat uncertain. "I guess we do."

Shirou didn't know what was going on. He didn't know why his onee-chans were arguing with Takami, or why.

And to be perfectly honest, he didn't care all that much.

To him, all that mattered was that he would be with his onee-chans.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Wagtail's Cuckoo: Four**

Life at Izumo Inn was different than at the hospital.

"As the legal wife, I demand to sit next to Minato!" Tsukiumi practically shouted as she and several of the other residents bickered over who got to sit where.

"I'm the legal wife too!" Musubi pointed out cheerfully, punching the air with enthusiasm. "_And_ I won the race today!"

"There can only be _one_ legal wife!" the blonde woman said loudly, her cheeks flush with irritation. "And you cheated!"

It was louder, for one thing.

"Oh my," Matsu said gleefully, her glasses suddenly gleaming with light ominously. "It seems that Tsukiumi-tan has invoked Highlander Rules!"

"Ara, ara," the petit landlord, Miya, held a hand to her cheek in mock alarm. "Things have gotten very lively around here lately."

"Hehe," Uzume-nee chuckled, watching the drama unfold before her. "You can say that again."

"Unn," Shirou agreed without hesitation from her side, happily following her example.

"What are Highlander rules?" Musubi asked, oblivious to the danger of having such things explained. Ignorance was a crime, and unfortunately it was also its own punishment.

"_There can only be one!"_ Matsu announced excitedly. "You must fight until only one remains!"

"No!" Minato cried out desperately, trying to nip the impending chaos in the bud. "No Highlander rules! She's just joking, Musubi-chan! Don't-"

"Very well, I accept these rules!" Tsukiumi proclaimed haughtily, and arrogantly closed her eyes to continue on an absurd spiel about her own superiority. "Though we may be rivals in love, there is no way you can compare to me in terms of pow-"

Ker-_pow!_

Tsukiumi was lifted off her feet as Musubi proceeded to Dragon Punch her straight out of the main building and into the garden, where Kazehana and Homura had been quietly chatting before dinner. There was a pair of surprised squawks as Tsukiumi landed unceremoniously between them, instantly silencing whatever discussion they had been having.

It was also a lot more crowded.

"Mmmuusssuuubiii..." Tsukiumi growled, and in a complex movement that Shirou didn't quite see or understand she was back on her feet. "I will _destroy_ you-"

"Ah!" Minato shouted hastily from where he sat. "Remember Shirou-kun!"

He didn't know why everyone was so concerned about him, though. It wasn't like he was involved in these fights. What was so bad about them, that he wasn't allowed to see them? It wasn't fair.

"Indeed, remember Shirou-kun," Miya said serenely, even as she slowly turned her head towards Uzume. "Uzume, would you and Shirou-kun be so good and get the pepper? I seem to have forgotten it in the kitchen."

Shirou blinked, and was about to point out to Miya that in fact she _hadn't_ forgotten it and that it was just in front of her, almost in her hand, when Uzume hastily stood up and lifted him up with her. He dangled in the air like a monkey, all thought of correcting the lilac-haired woman instantly as

"Of course!" Uzume chirped, and the two of them quickly retreated to the kitchen. But not before she spun him around so that he was on her back in a single movement that left him laughing with dizziness. "_Whatever you do, Shirou, don't look back,_" she whispered conspiratorially.

Behind him, Shirou felt something dark stir. He'd felt it several times before, but he'd never found it what was actually happening.

He was beginning to get curious about what it was.

"You should all know by now, but _fighting is strictly forbidden at Izumo House_," came Miya's voice from behind him, somehow seeming more ominous towards the end in spite of the women's gentle chiding.

But, even as the entire house degenerated into various shenanigans and episodes that would have done any sitcom proud, he had to say that he quite enjoyed living there.

It was only by living here that he had begun to realize that he had disliked living at the hospital, where nothing exciting or fun had happened. Where he had been alone with only one memory.

Now he had several, and he didn't dream about fire as much anymore. Not since the first time Uzume-nee had decided that just this once it was alright for him to sleep in her bed so that he didn't have to dream about it. (There had been a second time, of course, and then a third. He didn't want to push his luck too far, though.)

Yes, life was certainly different.

And it was because of this that he hoped that his previous life had been nothing like this one. Because if it had been, then that would have meant that all of these kind people had died screaming for help from a little boy who ignored them as he tried to save himself. He didn't want that fate for anyone here.

Except maybe Kuu-no-baka. He didn't think he'd mind too much if she were to die in a fire.

His animosity towards the Green Girl was perhaps one of the few things he could honestly call his own. It was the only thing he had not simply absorbed from someone else.

And it had all started the day he had arrived...

*_Earlier, During The Aforementioned Day!*_

"Whoa, I had no idea that you were a shota-con," Kazehana said, sounding somewhat worried. "I don't think Miya's gonna let this slide, even if he is your Ashikabi."

Shirou was watching the strange woman with a great deal of interest,

He was also, of course, wearing the monk-costume that Uzume-nee had supplied him with. The simple kimono and obi that she had made for him flowed was light and breezy. It felt strange to wear such light clothing after being bandaged up for days, but when Uzume-nee had presented him with it he had almost immediately changed into it from the hospital gown. (Uzume had sighed about there always being someone without common sense around her at all times.) And then the two of them had gone to Chiho-nee for the last time before she went to go get better from whatever it was that was making her so sick.

The way she had lighted up upon seeing him in it had solidified its place as his first-choice clothing. There was barely a day that he was out of it.

"I'm an Ashikabi?" Shirou said, blinking in confusion. He turned over to Uzume, searching her face for some kind of explanation. "What's an Ashikabi?"

Uzume fidgeted agitatedly, before looking away from him and towards Kazehana.

"It's something _you're not_," she said pointedly, and then looked back down at him. "_Because you're in no way involved with anything to do with that_."

"Oh," Shirou said, and nodded his acceptance of this explanation. "That makes sense."

"Oh," Kazehana echoed, and then her expression turned more concerned. "Miya is _definitely_ not going to like this."

"Ara?" a gentle voice said, and a moment later Miya joined Kazehana at the doorway. "And what exactly would I not li-"

Her eyes landed on him, and instantly they narrowed into thin wedges of unspeakable fury. Without saying a word, she whirled around and disappeared back into the house.

Uzume looked nervous for some reason. And so did Kazehana, for that reason.

"Erm," Uzume mumbled quietly, hesitantly peering into Izumo Inn to see just what was going on inside. "You don't think that-"

As if answering her, Miya returned in that exact moment, with a blade drawn and pointed at Uzume.

"I thought that you of all people had been living here long enough to know the rules, Uzume," she said ominously. "It seems that I was wrong. It is time for you to find out that kidnapping carries with it the harshest of penal-"

"_Ohmygoshlookit'sKuu-chancomehereKuu-chanquickquick!"_ Uzume somehow managed to say all of that in one word of terror-fuelled inspiration.

"U-chan?" Someone sleepily said from inside the inn, and a moment later someone around his height emerged from behind Miya. "What's happening?"

Shirou studied her curiously, still wondering just what was happening but more than little interested in finding out more about the people he would be staying with. As if sensing his scrutiny, Kusano's attention drifted from Uzume-nee to him, and was surprised when she spotted him there. He didn't know what she'd been _expecting_ to find, but apparently it wasn't him.

The two of them froze as they locked eyes. Shirou found he simply could not tear his gaze away. He could _feel_ her presence on him, silently asking him questions. Wanting to know who and what he was. Wanting him to approve of and be friends with her.

Unfortunately for her, Shirou was a little... strange. He didn't react like most people did.s

Instead of smiling at her, Shirou frowned with mild perplexity. Kusano, sensing that something was wrong, did so as well.

The two of them sized each other up like ancient samurai might have, neither of them moving an inch, as if doing so would grant the other a moment's opportunity that the other would seize upon. There might as well have been sparks flying between them for all the tension there was between them.

This was a struggle. This was _battle_. This was a war in which there could only be one victor.

"Aww, look at them!" Kazehana cooed. "Instant rivals! They're _adorable!_"

Kusano spared the elder Sekirei a brief scowl before returning her gaze to the new interloper.

And then, at long last, she spoke.

"You're not allowed to marry onii-chan," she declared, earning a round of smiles from everyone present save Shirou, who saw nothing funny about this.

Shirou glowered, instantly offended at this notion.

"Who'd wanna marry your onii-chan?" he asked, none-too-kindly. He didn't know why he was so upset at the notion, but he was. "My onee-chan is way cooler!"

Kusano seemed to take this as a challenge.

"Nuh-uh!" she asserted, as if this negated his argument. "My onii-chan rescued me from the scary onee-chan with the sharp thingee, and then we had dinner and I kissed him!"

Shirou's mouth turned upwards into a confident smirk at this

"Uzume-nee broke into my hospital room!" Shirou announced proudly, confident that he had the blonde-haired little upstart beat. "And then she adopted me!"

Strangely, nobody said anything at first. There was no sound except for the wind blowing and the leaves it carried with it rustling together.

And then a sound like wood blocks clacking together sounded, and Miya's sword was freed from its sheathe in a single motion.

"_Just what have you been up to, Uzume?"_ she asked, sounding at once terrifyingly furious and as gentle as a cool breeze.

Uzume panicked, and in her fear she immediately plucked him from the ground and held him in front of her like a protective talisman.

"It's not like that, I swear!" she protested her innocence desperately even as she used him as a human shield.

He wasn't certain how, but he _knew_ that somehow Kusano was involved in this somehow. It was _her_ fault that his onee-chan was in trouble. It had to be. After all, _he'd_ only told the truth.

And that meant that she was trying to make trouble for his onee-chan.

Shirou nodded grimly, and silently a pledge of lifelong animosity was made. Kuu, seeming to sense what he was doing, scowled and nodded back at him, no doubt doing exactly the same thing.

It was settled, then and there.

The Serious Man could wait.

For now, Kusano was his mortal enemy.

*_Back In The Present!*_

"Uzume-nee," Shirou said quietly from the Sekirei's back. "Why did Miya ask us to get pepper? She had some right in front of her."

"Don't worry about that, bro," Uzume answered, even as she listened in on the terrified dialogue not far from where they were. "Just enjoy the show while you can!"

Shirou didn't get it. While he did draw some enjoyment from listening to the various other residents of Izumo Inn stutter and shudder with fear, he didn't understand just what was so funny about it that his sister would gain such pleasure from being excused from whatever it was that Miya was doing.

"Ehehe," Uzume giggled fitfully.

"Nee-chan..." Shirou tried again, tugging at her pant-leg.

Something chimed, startling the both of them for a moment. Then Uzume frowned, reached into one of her pockets and pulled something out. Shirou instantly recognized as her cellphone. (She'd let him play with it a few times, saying that it was probably safer than borrowing anything from Matsu.)

Her cellphone chimed again, louder this time.

Uzume looked at the number, and her frown deepened before she pressed a button and held the thing to her ear.

"I thought I told you not to call this-" Uzume paused mid-speech, her mouth hanging open. "_What did you say?_" she hissed out.

Shirou tried desperately to listen in, wanting to find out just what was making Uzume-nee so upset. Unfortunately, all he could hear was quiet, indecipherable muttering.

Uzume went pale.

"No," she said quietly, and Shirou noticed that her hands were trembling. "No, you're lying!"

More muttering, and then a different voice said something.

"Chiho?" Uzume said, sounding as if her voice was the last thing she wanted to hear.

Shirou brightened up at this, completely misunderstanding the situation.

"Chiho-nee?" the boy said brightly, and tugged once more at Uzume's jeans. "Can I talk to her?"

"Be quiet, Shirou," Uzume told him, sounding harsher than she probably meant to. Shirou, confused and somewhat hurt by her rebuttal, did so. "Are you okay? Have they hurt you?"

Shirou sulked quietly, but didn't say anything as he patiently waited for Uzume to finish talking.

"Alright, that's good, very good," Uzume continued, freed from the distraction. "Alright, let me talk to him again," a brief pause, and then she spoke again. "What do you want?"

Shirou watched Uzume like a hawk, watching her expression change from worried anger to distaste and then to outright disgust.

"Alright. Fine," she growled, tore the phone away from her ear and ended the call. She stood ramrod still for a moment, and then she stormed away towards the front door.

Shirou, ever dutiful to his onee-chan, followed her.

He followed her out the door and into the night.

He followed her right up to the gate before she realized that he was doing so, and turned to him with a look of despair.

Uncertain, Shirou smiled up at her.

He wasn't certain what this was all about. He didn't know was happening. All he knew was that his onee-chan was upset about something, and he wanted to help somehow. Uzume, looking at his hopeful expression, seemed to realize that.

She felt like she was about to kick a puppy.

Uzume crouched down in front of him, and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Wait over there, Shirou," she told him gently, and pointed back towards the front door. She grinned at him encouragingly. "I'll be back soon, alright?"

Shirou nodded slowly, and though he wanted to ask her to stay he didn't.

Because she hadn't asked about that.

"Okay," he said instead.

Uzume smiled, and rose. Without looking back, she ran out into the darkness.

Shirou watched her go, still wishing he could ask her to stay.

But she'd told him to wait

And so he waited.

Shirou was nothing if not obedient, and when it was such a simple command as 'wait here'... well, there wasn't a whole lot else to do. Moreover, there wasn't a whole lot he _wanted_to do.

Hours passed. _Days_ passed.

Shirou slept and ate, of course. But such things were done on sufferance only. He recognized their necessity in order for him to remain healthy, and so begrudgingly took care of both. And occasionally someone would scoop him up and drop into a tub of steaming water, and while he initially struggled against this he'd eventually learned that it was just faster to allow himself to be cleansed of the dirt or sweat that accumulated on him.

And then he would dutifully return to his spot on the porch, and return to waiting.

Things happened around Shirou, things that he didn't pay much attention to. House politics. Shenanigans. Adventures. Arguments. Those were mere details, however. And after a while he got to be very good at ignoring such things. Sounds blurred into the background, faces and voices became irrelevant. There was only his vigil.

He could only wait for Uzume to come back

The other residents would watch him varying degrees of worry as he simply sat on the front porch and stared out into the street. He was like some kind of guardian statue keeping watch over their household, but he served only as a constant reminder of who wasn't present.

And, of course, there was talk. There had to be.

"It's weird," he heard Kazehana say, and she sounded sad. "He's like a dog waiting for his master to come home."

"Don't say it like that!" Minato admonished, sounding sympathetic. "He's, he's like a Sekirei! Yeah! A Sekirei waiting for his Ashikabi!"

"But he is not a dog or a Sekirei," Miya said, just as sad. "He's just a little boy, waiting for his precious sister," She gave a quiet sigh. "It seems that I will have to talk to Uzume about playing with young men's hearts."

The sounds of movement happened behind him, and then Shirou felt someone place a gentle hand on his shoulder.

Shirou was startled by this, and for a moment his vigilance broke as he tore his eyes away from the street towards whoever had touched him.

Miya was leaning over him, smiling gently at him.

"Shirou-kun," she greeted him quietly. "Would you like to learn how to greet a loved one who has come back home?"

"Yes," Shirou answered, and then turned his gaze back to the street. "But I have to wait for Uzume-nee. She told me to."

Miya shook him gently, regain his attention long enough to speak again.

"I'm sure that she would like you to greet her properly when she returns, don't you?" she said, and Shirou paused.

He couldn't reasonably say yes or no, really. For all that he was very fond of her, he'd only known her for a few weeks at best. Whereas he suspected that Miya had been living with Uzume for months. There was a real possibility that she was right.

"Maybe," he acquiesced reluctantly.

Miya smiled fondly at him, even as she gestured for him to rise and follow her.

"Then come inside for a moment, Shirou-kun, and we can practice together."

And then Shirou spent a few reluctant minutes with her that day, and then the next day. And then the next. When he was confident that he had learned everything he needed to know from her, he stopped going to her.

He simply returned to his task. Sensing that the boy wouldn't stop until either Uzume came back or he was forced to do otherwise, nobody else tried to distract him. It just seemed... wrong, somehow. Even as wrong as the situation already was, ending it just seemed too cruel.

Occasionally someone would make an attempt to rouse him out of stupor. Matsu would bring him some new game. Minato would try to talk to him. Tsukiumi would try to drench him in order force him away. Kazehana tried to foist a few comics on him. Even Kuu-no-baka would tease him mercilessly. But he would soon learn to ignore each of them in turn.

So Shirou waited.

And then, late at night one day, she _did_ come back.

* * *

He'd been sleeping at the time, and it had taken the roar of wind and fire to stir him from his rest. His eyes had snapped open when he thought he'd heard a familiar voice. He stumbled sleepily to his feet, and made his way to the window in order to see what was going on.

It was dark out, and he couldn't see a whole lot, but there _was_ something did that catch his eye.

It was Uzume-nee.

Sure, she wasn't wearing her normal clothes. And yeah, he couldn't see her face from the angle he was looking at her from. But she did have the right outline, and he was certain that he'd heard her talk.

Something about coming home.

With haste born of desperate hope Shirou put on clothes and ran towards the front door to see if it really was her. Doorways blurred past him as he bolted outside, intent on completing the task Uzume had given him.

He didn't know what exactly had surged through his chest when he realized it was her

"Uzume-nee," he breathed, and though he'd meant to calmly walk up and greet her just as Miya had taught him to he broke into a mad sprint at some point and launched himself towards her in order to wrap his arms around her in a tight hug.

She spotted him coming, and for a moment she simply stared at him.

Obviously she hadn't expected him to do his part.

Grinning happily, he put extra effort into his dash, hoping that he would be able to bowl her over like he'd seen in some of the comics Kazehana had given him. It happened all the time there, so that meant it had to happen in reality, right?

Unfortunately, that seemed to not be the case. Instead, he managed to push her backwards a few steps while she staggered to right herself

He looked up at her, wanting to make sure that it wasn't a dream. That she was really there.

And she was. She really was. She was smiling down at him with amusement, as if he had done something funny.

Something glinted in her eyes, and she looked up for a moment at something over his shoulder.

Her smile fell.

And then something hit his back.

Hard.

It surprised him at first, and that surprise dulled him to the sensation of being impaled. But it didn't last, and soon enough he felt it all. His strength left his body in that moment, and he slid away from her, his suddenly nerveless fingers finding no purchase to grasp onto as he fell no matter how desperately he tried to hold on to her.

"_No!"_ someone screamed, but the sound came from far, far away.

Something twisted inside his chest as he hit the ground, forcing him to cry out at the agony. His vision went fuzzy, and all sound was replaced by a thunderous silence. For what felt like eternity, pain was his existence. It pulsed through him like red waves, gnawing away at his reason even as it forced him to concentrate on it.

Every ragged cough that sprayed his blood across the pavement twisted the dagger inside of him.

Every agonized writhing only made things worse for him.

Every second brought with it a fresh reminder that he was dying.

But even this was nothing.

How could it be, when he could still remember the heat of the fire in his dreams? The feeling of his skin blistering and burning, each breath searing his throat and filling his lungs with acrid smoke that made him wheeze and cough. The feeling of _falling_ into fire...

How could the cold bite of steel compare to writhing in ashes and being _devoured_ by its heat?

It could not.

And it was through this knowledge that he was able to force his eyes open despite the great weariness that had suddenly stolen over him.

Someone was holding him. He could feel their warmth against him even as his own dripped out of him. He focussed, and saw his Uzume-nee. She looked like she was trying to say something, but the roaring in his ears made it impossible to hear anything.

She didn't look happy, though.

Nobody looked happy when they were crying like that.

Something was wrong.

Uzume-nee shouldn't be crying like this. She was supposed to be happy to see him. As happy as he was to see her. Miya-sensei had told him as much, and _she_ couldn't be wrong. She was far too knowledgeable to be wrong.

So that meant that something was missing.

But what could it be?

Oh.

That's right.

He'd almost forgotten.

He forced himself to smile just as Miya had taught him. He was certain that he did it perfectly, even if he felt something warm trickling out of his mouth. He hoped it was just blood, and not drool. That would be awkward.

Because he'd been _practicing_ for this moment. (Whenever he was certain that Kuu-no-baka wasn't looking.) It was _important_ that he got this right.

Uzume froze when she saw it, and Shirou knew at once that he'd done it right. It made his smile real.

"Welcome home, onee-chan," he said weakly but happily, and closed his eyes.

He was very tired, after all, and onee-chan would wake him up in the morning.

And then everything could go back to normal.


	5. Chapter 5

**The Wagtail's Cuckoo: Five**

The comforter was soft and warm, but Shirou was so tired that he couldn't even bundle it closer to him in order to make himself warmer still. All he wanted to do was sleep, but the voices around him just wouldn't let him. He was coasting on the edge of wakefulness and rest, that strange place where he wasn't certain whether he was asleep and still dreaming or just beginning to wake up. Although in all honesty he was entirely too tired to care. _Much_ easier to simply try to sleep more.

Besides, wasn't Uzume here? He seemed to recall seeing her. She should be here.

"_Trust me, Uzume,"_ someone said calmly. "_If you saw pictures of this kid from only a few weeks ago, you wouldn't be worried."_

"'_Wouldn't be worried'?_" someone else repeated, and through the fuzzy haze of sleep Shirou could almost be certain that it was Uzume-nee speaking. _"What is __wrong__ with you! He's __dying__! Now is the perfect time to worry!"_

"_He isn't, actually. And that's a part of my point: he was dying __then__ too, and much more quickly as well. He didn't look like a kid back then. More like a piece of bacon, extra crispy. That's why we didn't bother to take him in: he wasn't supposed to last more than a day with burns like those, let alone make a full recovery in a little over a week."_

Bacon? Was Miya-san making breakfast? That was strange... he couldn't smell it.

"_What are you implying, Sahashi-san?" _ a third voice asked, and it sounded suspiciously like Chiho-nee. "_That's impossible. Nobody can recover from burns that bad so quickly."_

"_Exactly. Which is why I wanted to run some tests on him,"_ the second voice continued, and by now Shirou was relatively certain that it was Takami speaking. "_But I don't think that will be necessary now. I've seen quite enough to be convinced. Obviously the young man is a throwback of some kind."_

"_Eh?"_ Uzume-nee grunted in surprise. "_You mean he's... like me?"_

"_All signs point to 'yes'. Look,"_ the comforter was pulled back, leaving him exposed to the cold air. He wanted to leap forward and grab them back, but that was too much effort. And besides, he was still _tired_.

But then someone rolled him onto his side and prodded his back, and the neurons started firing just a bit faster in his brain. He made a sound of protest at being handled in such a way, but it was too quiet for anyone to hear.

"_See? He's almost completely healed up. A scar will be the worst of his worries at this rate. Like I said: __nothing__ to worry about," _ something prodded where the scar that had been a mortal wound less than a day ago, and while it didn't actually hurt him the not-wound was still sore enough to jolt him into a higher level of wakefulness. 'Higher' being the operating word.

"Mmm," the boy groaned, and tried to inch away from the source of agitation. "Just fifteen more minutes, Landlady-sensei..." he mumbled sleepily. "I won't let Uzume-nee sleep in again..."

Nobody said anything at first, as they seemed too surprised that not only had Shirou recovered to the point that touching where he had been impaled just a day before didn't hurt but had also picked up an interesting new piece of behaviour. But the moment soon passed.

"You're a _terrible_ influence, Uzume!" Chiho chided even as she stifled a laugh.

"I suppose that proves my point handily enough," Takami said, obviously amused.

"He's, he's, he's-" Uzume stuttered, suddenly sounding very nervous. "_How?_"

Shirou slowly became aware that people were talking, moreover that they were talking about _him._ But more importantly, his nee-chans were here.

Which meant that he _hadn't_ dreamt the other night. It had really happened. (Although why Chiho-nee was here was a bit of a mystery. Wasn't she supposed to be somewhere else, getting better?)

Which meant that he had also been hurt. That was unfortunate.

That was probably why he was back in a hospital bed, though there were minor differences from the one he had first woken up in all those days ago. A less stark shade of white on the walls, a different style of window revealing a different view of the city.

So he was in a new hospital.

Curious.

But that would have to wait.

There were more important things to think about. Namely, his sisters and the fact that he was back with them. (He found it a bit strange that it seemed that they only seemed to meet all at once in hospitals.)

He rolled onto his back and propped himself up into a sitting position with complete disregard for the fact that once again he was clad only in a hospital gown.

"Uzume-nee, Chiho-nee!" he greeted happily, and felt a real smile form on his face. "You're back!"

"Ah, good morning Shirou-kun," Chiho greeted in return, and smiled warmly at him. "I'm glad to see that you're doing better so soon. You frightened Uzume quite a bit, you know."

"I'm sorry," the boy responded, and shook his head remorsefully. "I didn't know what was happening."

"Oh, don't apologize Shirou!" Chiho amended hastily, sounding apologetic. "I didn't mean it like that. It's not your fault: it was just an accident."

Shirou nodded, taking this in. So whatever had happened, it wasn't his fault. That was good to know. He wasn't entirely certain of all the details himself, after all. The last thing he remembered was something ripping into him and then smiling up at Uzume. Everything else was just... extraneous.

"Y, yeah," Uzume said nervously, and looked away from Shirou. "It wasn't you fault, Shirou. You shouldn't be sorry."

Takami nodded at this, and pulled out Shirou's medical chart.

"Well, if that's all then I suppose the two of you can take Shirou with you when you leave," she said with a smile. "But _try_ not to let something like this happen, yes? I don't want to think about what might have happened if Shirou hadn't won the genetic lottery."

"Don't worry, Sahashi-san, we'll take good care of Shirou," Chiho said in reply, and reached out to give hold his hand.

"Err," Uzume said, sounding as if she didn't want to be there. "I, I think..."

She trailed off, unable to finish what she was about to say.

"I, err, I ehm," everyone turned to look at the source of the nervous stammer, which turned out to be Uzume. She was looking down at the ground, unable to look Shirou in the eye.

"Uzume-nee?" Shirou gave her a questioning glance, curious as to what

"I, I," The Sekirei paused, took a deep breath, and then forced herself to continue in a rush. "I-think-Shirou-should-live-with-someone-else!"

"What?" Chiho said in alarm. "Uzume, what are you saying?"

"Is this _really_ right the time for this, number 10?" Takami asked, rolling her eyes. "Maybe you could wait a while longer? Until the person you're talking about isn't here? Or in a hospital bed, for that matter?"

"No, this can't wait," Uzume asserted, and made a cutting motion with her hand. "This is _serious_. Shirou can't stay with us. He's- it's just too dangerous to live with us! He needs to be somewhere else!"

"Uzume..." Chiho said quietly, her eyes widening.

"Uzume-nee?" Shirou asked, confused and not a little hurt. "Why?"

"Number 10, I don't think you're thinking this thr-" Takami began, but was interrupted.

"You weren't there!" Uzume accused, looking hunted. "You didn't hear him!"

"What? What could he have said that was so horrible?" Takami demanded, waving a hand. "That he hated you? That it was your fault? He's just a kid, number 10, and he was under a great deal of stress at the time. Dying does that to you. I think a _little_ bitterness would be in order."

"No!" the Sekirei wailed, and Shirou could see the tears welling up in her eyes. "He wasn't angry! He just smiled and said 'welcome home'! He didn't cry, he barely made a sound! He was just so _happy_ to see me!"

Takami's eyes narrowed slightly in consideration at this, and then jotted something down on her notepad.

"Odd, but not wholly outside of the norm," she said.

"Yes it is!" Uzume insisted vehemently. "Nobody does that! Nobody with a dagger in their back dies smiling! They cry, they scream, they plead! They don't look like it's the happiest moment of their life! I _can't_ see that again! I _won't_! It's, it's too sad!"

"But I was happy," Shirou said uncertainly. "I waited for you for _days_, Uzume-nee. And it wasn't too bad. At least I wasn't burning."

"Wha- are you _kidding_ me?" Uzume almost shrieked, her eyes wide with horror. "You're saying that the reason you weren't afraid to die was because you weren't _burning?_"

Shirou shook his head slowly, unaffected by the his sister's distress.

"No. I just wasn't afraid. I was supposed to die in the fire, but I didn't," he gave a small shrug, as if to express his indifference to this. "Anywhere else is fine. But I got to see you before that happened, so I was happy."

Uzume gaped at him for a moment at the boy, her mouth opening and closing at a rapid clip as she tried to find the words to articulate just how incredibly horrifying his explanation was to her. Words formed on her lips, but never quite managed to find their way out. Eventually she simply gave up, and instead turned back to Takami.

"That!" She spat out, "That right there! That's why we can't keep him! He doesn't deserve this! He shouldn't live like this!" she ranted, pointing a finger a Shirou. "He needs to be somewhere far away from all of this, where he won't get hurt! Somewhere safe!"

"And this is what you want, is it?" Takami asked bluntly, eyes narrowed. "This is how you're going to protect him? By making him live somewhere else?

"Yes!" Uzume agreed gratefully, sagging visibly as her passion left her suddenly. "That's what I want. Shirou's too nice a kid to just die like that, Takami. He needs to be somewhere else."

Takami sighed and shook her head in disappointment, pinching the bridge of her nose as she did.

"Have you forgotten already?" she asked tiredly.

"Forgotten?" Uzume repeated, confusion plain upon her face. "What are you talking about?"

"Just who do you think is going to end up with Shirou if you don't keep him, number 10?" Takami said harshly. "Because I can tell you right now who it would be: MBI. I might be able to find him a foster family that's nice enough, but it won't change the fact that he'll be only a stone's throw away from us."

"So?" Uzume retorted defensively, but there was a note of uncertainty in her voice as she said it. "What's so bad about that?"

Takami sighed again, this time with exasperation.

"I thought you'd have figured it out by now. Shirou's _different_. You've seen it. The rate at which he heals is nothing short of supernatural," the scientist simplified. "He's as close to a Sekirei as a human can get," she paused for effect, watching Uzume as her words took root. When it looked like the Sekirei understood, she continued on mercilessly. "So how long do you think it will be until someone decides to push him even closer?"

"What?" Uzume blurted out, her eyes widening in alarm. "But, but that's impossible! He's not- he isn't-"

The scientist shook her head and rubbed her eyes as if she were suddenly very tired.

"We're a medical research company, number 10, and we've been getting a _lot_ of practice with genetic modification lately. I should think that you're familiar with our work," she said meaningfully. "So I'll ask you again: _how_ is this supposed to protect him? How will you not being close to him keep him out of this? How are you going to protect number 109 when someone finds a way to give him wings?_"_

Uzume flinched away from the scientist as if slapped.

"So I'll ask you again: is this what you want, number 10?"

Shirou chose this moment to speak up, having decided that he'd been quiet for long enough.

"Uhm," he said, raising a hand in question. "What are you talking about?"

"Ssh, Shirou," Chiho hushed him, and gave him another reassuring squeeze with her hand. "Sahashi-san is just explaining to Uzume why you need to stay with us. Again."

Uzume scowled at this, and folded her arms with a huff of irritation.

"No. This has nothing to do with Takami. Shirou," the Sekirei said seriously, but when she said the young boy's name her expression softened. "You're strange. Really, _really_ strange. _And that's perfectly fine!"_ she hastened to add in defence when she saw Chiho giving her a funny look. Mollified, the young woman turned back to the boy in the hospital bed.

Uzume, trying to look like she hadn't just been cowed by a single look from her Ashikabi, continued.

"But I won't let you just die wherever or whenever. You are not allowed! That would make me very sad, do you understand? Chiho would cry! You don't want to make her cry, do you?"

Shirou shook his head quickly, in complete agreement with Uzume on this issue. If dying would make his sisters sad, then he would have to avoid that.

"Of course, Uzume-nee," he said readily.

Uzume watched him suspiciously, as if she was waiting for something.

"Shirou," she began, narrowing her eyes. "Is the reason why you won't let yourself die just because it would make me'n'Chiho sad?"

Shirou had the wit to recognize the question for what it was, but he wasn't about to lie to Uzume. He could try to think of an alternate truth to tell her, but he was drawing a blank on just what that would be. He made a mental note to look into creative thinking. That might help him out in tricky situations like these.

"... Yes," he admitted reluctantly. There wasn't any other answer he could give her, after all.

Chiho exchanged a look with Uzume, who merely sighed.

"You are _really_ strange, bro," and then she shrugged, and grinned like she had that first day they'd met. "I guess we'll have our work cut out for us, won't we?"

"Ooh?" Chiho said, and smiled warmly. "So I guess that means that Shirou is staying with us, yes? We get to have a little Sekirei of our own?"

"Hehe, Shirou isn't a wagtail," Uzume corrected with a chuckle. "He's just living in our nest!"

"... That doesn't make any sense," Shirou said blankly.

"Don't worry about that, Shirou," the Sekirei said, and leaned forward to ruffle his hair. "It doesn't have to make sense. Not to you, anyways."

"Why am _I_ strange if you can say things that don't make sense?" Shirou asked in complaint.

"Because I'm your big sister, of course! Now listen up, bucko, because things are gonna change! First of all, you can't..."

Takami watch the scene unfold, and when she realized that she wasn't needed any more she decided to just leave the three of them there. As much as she enjoyed seeing that strange and unique family being formed, there was still work to be done. Work that wouldn't wait for her while she smiled at their antics.

But she would have to make a point of checking up on them later. It was nice to see that the Plan wasn't _just_ destroying lives.

It was nice to see things work out for people who needed them to.


	6. Epilogue

**The Wagtail's Cuckoo: Epilogue**

Time moves faster when you're having fun.

Shirou had already made a note of this phenomenon, though he still didn't appreciate it very much.

It was in this way that two months had passed, and already things were about to change again.

"Shirou!" Chiho shouted from the living-room. "Wake up already! You need breakfast before you go to school!"

The boy in question, having long ago resigned himself to this morning ritual, rose from his bed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He yawned, and made his way over to his dresser where the uniform that Uzume had presented to him the day before had been laid out for him to wear.

He put it on, frowning slightly as he did because it wasn't quite as comfortable as the monk costume that he had convinced Uzume to repair, (Uzume had asked him why he was so attached to it, and Shirou's only explanation was that he was fond of it. His sister had then mumbled something about him 'inheriting the taste-for-weird-clothing gene',) and then went to join his nee-chans and the other residents of Izumo Inn for breakfast.

... who apparently weren't there. Again.

Minato and his friends rarely were, these days. They were off fighting The Serious Man, (who Shirou had only recently learned was actually named Higa,) apparently, for what he had done. Nobody would tell him just what that was, however, so Shirou wasn't entirely certain how he felt about this. On the one hand, The Serious Man deserved to get hurt. On the other, the mornings _were_ pretty boring recently.

Well, almost.

Sitting across the table next to Miya-sensei, was Kusano. She was happily digging into her breakfast with gusto until she noticed him, and then took a moment to scowl at him.

Until recently, the two of them had settled into a kind ambivalent truce that was subject to the whims of children. Which of course meant that it lasted only so long as others were around to witness it.

Whenever that wasn't the case it was only a matter of time before they attacked one another.

Which, because Kusano wasn't quite old enough to be discreet, soon led to Uzume carefully explaining to him the nature of the Sekirei and his own unique ancestry. The hope had been that he and Kusano would bond over their shared heritage.

But children, especially children who have recently learned that they were more than mundane, are volatile creatures. If anything, their mutual aggression only intensified: it wasn't as if Shirou could be _permanently_ hurt, after all. And it was a learning experience all in its own to have to learn how to dodge through vine-whips.

Shirou glowered right back at her, and would have continued doing just that if Uzume hadn't unceremoniously pushed him towards the table as she made to sit down as well.

"Get a move on, bro," his sister told him. "You're not going to be late to your first day. Chiho would have our heads."

Shirou grumbled resentfully at this, mostly because it was expected of him. But he did as he was bade, all the same, noting that Chiho was watching him carefully once more.

In light of the discovery of just how 'strange' he was, Chiho had been inexhaustibly probing just how deeply the scars of his ordeal went. And then being surprised at how shallow they were. Not because he was unaffected by it, (although it could be said that he wasn't,) but rather because _there was nothing else for him_. There was only the fire, that smile that even now incited jealousy in him, and his sisters. There wasn't a whole lot to scar.

And so she spent most of their time together teaching him about how 'normal' people lived. About school, about hobbies, about friends, about a great many things that Shirou wasn't entirely too sure how he should feel about. It was a whole new world for little Shirou, and he hadn't even been out in it yet.

Luckily, however, Uzume was there to give him the CliffNotes.

School became somewhere he didn't want to be but had to do well at or else Chiho would be disappointed with him. Hobbies were things he did to entertain himself. (He had yet to find one, however.) Friends were people who would deal with his strangeness long enough to realize that he was just a bit strange and not a robot. And the rest of the world was likewise reduced to grossly simplified statements or explanations.

It was very helpful.

However, there was something that was niggling at him in the back of his mind. It had bothered him for a while now, and this seemed like the best time for it.

"Why do I have to go to school, but not Kusano?" he asked, and then bit into a piece of toast.

"Kuu-chan is a special case, bro," Uzume explained, earning her a curious glance from Shirou. She looked like she was about to expand upon the explanation, but hesitated when she saw Miya watching her carefully. Unwilling to annoy her landlord, his sister decided to take a different approach. "She's learning other things than you are, and they're just as important."

Shirou recalled some of the things that Chiho had said would be taught to him, and then remembered that Uzume had handily summarized them all as "Pretty much everything you might ever need to know about anything". He wondered briefly what Kusano could be learning that was just as or more important as this, and debated whether he could ask he could be taught it as well.

He was certain he could learn it better and faster than Kuu-no-baka would.

But then he remembered Chiho-nee wanted this for him, so he would just have to grin and bear it.

"Oh, don't make that face, Shirou-kun," Chiho chided gently from beside him, apparently having noticed the look of resignation he was wearing. "School will be fun. I know you'll enjoy it!"

"And it'll be good to get out of the house for a while each day," Uzume added. "Y'know, meet other kids. Play with them. Learn how to not be weird. Ack, murder eyes!"

The last outburst was blurted out as Chiho leveled the woman with a reprimanding glower, though her expression quickly melted when she noticed Shirou was watching her with curiosity. He didn't know why Chiho-nee acted like that whenever Uzume brought up his... oddness. They seemed to be in agreement that his behavior was something to correct. So why be shy about mentioning it?

But, he supposed, it was things like that that made him different. Not knowing what was wrong about the situation was itself an indicator that it was wrong.

Probably. He wasn't too certain about the specifics, and he suspected that that was also a part of the problem.

Too difficult. Better left to his sisters to sort out. They knew about these things, after all.

He concentrated on eating his breakfast instead. That, at least, he knew about.

Smalltalk was made as he did so, errant banter between the owner of Izumo Inn and the new family that was forming inside it. In a way, it wasbetter that Minato wasn't there at the moment. Things would have awkward.

More and more each day, there a line was being drawn between Minato and his lovers and what was rapidly becoming referred to as 'the Hidakas'. It wasn't done out of hostility, however: they merely recognized that, as much as they got along together, Uzume, Chiho and Shirou were something that the others weren't: they were a _family_, rather than an aggregation of lust and love bound together by circumstance and alien mating practices. The two groups were close, but both recognized that the others were closer still to themselves.

Which was just fine with Shirou.

He finished off his brekfast all too soon, and upon noticing this Uzume cleared her throat.

"Alright, time to go, bro! Your backpack is by the door: go put on your shoes, and we can head out," Uzume ordered him, grinning warmly. "Chiho and I will be with you in just a sec."

Shirou nodded and did as he was told, reflecting as he did that each morning would be like this: accompanied by his onee-chans on his way to school, not distracted by the other residents of Izumo Inn or the various goings-on that tended to crop up the longer they were there.

He decided that maybe school might not be quite so bad.

*_Later, on the way to school!*_

The spring morning was warm and bright, and the hustle of the day had not yet had a chance to sink in. And so Shirou and his sisters had a relatively quiet trip towards the school that Shirou would be attending, basking in the comfortable silence.

But they didn't make it very far before Uzume noticed something amiss about their route.

"Hmm?" She said, pausing to look at a large moving truck with an array of furniture being carried into an apartment block. "What's going on here?"

Shirou and Chiho slowed down to a standstill in order to take in the scene. One of them was only mildly curious, but the other was intensely interested. And that other person was Shirou. There was something _very_ familiar about something that he was seeing, but he couldn't quite place it. He just _knew_ that it was there.

"I'm not sure," Chiho said slowly, and frowned contemplatively. "It looks like someone's moving in."

Shirou, his eyes locked onto one of the people supervising the movement of various items of furniture, suddenly spotted what it was that was niggling away at him. And then recognition dawned on him like a rising sun.

"That man," he said quietly, never once looking away lest the object of his attention vanish. "I know him."

"Eh?" Chiho said, surprised. She leaned down next to him, a inquisitive expression on her face. "But, I thought you said you didn't remember anything before the-" her mouth snapped shut suddenly, a mild blush appearing on her cheeks. Obviously there was something she didn't want to say.

Uzume, on the other hand, had no such compunctions. After all, she was the most acquainted with just how... _different_ Shirou was: she knew he wouldn't be offended.

"Before the fire," Uzume finished, frowning over at Chiho. "But yeah, I thought that was the case as well."

"I don't," Shirou stated, still staring. He shrugged at their questioning looks. "I saw him _during_ the fire. He saved me."

Silence greeted Shirou's statement as the two women took this in. And then their eyes went wide, and all thought of school was forgotten as they both turned to look at the man in question.

"A, are you _certain_?" Chiho asked.

"Y, yeah bro, this is kinda heavy, y'know?" Uzume said, sounding a bit nervous for some reason. "Is he really the guy?"

"Yes," Shirou said in no uncertain terms. "I could never forget him."

Chiho and Uzume exchanged troubled looks with one another, each of them worried for their ward for different reasons.

Uzume, having for so long been engaged in the shadier aspects of the Sekirei Plan, had come to the (correct) conclusion that a man who made it out of a devastating fire when almost nobody else did was probably involved in some way. That the fire in question had happened so far away, or that the man in question had in fact _rescued_ one of the only other survivors was a moot point to her: he was _dangerous_, and that was that.

Chiho's worry, on the other hand, could be said to be a great deal less pressing. Her main worry was that Shirou would remember the fire that had so badly warped him. She was, alas, operating under a false pretense: that Shirou _didn't_ want remember. She couldn't comprehend that someone _wouldn't_ feel very strongly about that sort of thing, even if she had heard it from his own mouth herself.

"Well, I guess there's only one thing to do then!" She announced, suddenly full of enthusiasm.

"Eh?" Uzume grunted, surprised at this new turn of events.

"What do you mean, Chiho-nee?" Shirou asked, confused.

"We have to thank him, of course!" the woman replied, and grabbed both Shirou and Uzume's hands. "Come on Shirou, Uzume! We have to show our gratitude!"

The young woman pulled the two along with her, ignoring Shirou's bemused expression and Uzume's squawk of surprise.

The sound of it caused the man in question to perk up and quickly turn to face the source, looking wary. Failing to see any immediate threat, however, he allowed himself to relax and greet the strange trio.

"Hello," he said, still a bit wary of the newcomers in spite of their relative harmlessness. "Can I help you?"

"Oh, no!" Chiho assured him, still radiating happy enthusiasm. "We just wanted to thank you!"

"Excuse me?" Kiritsugu seemed taken aback by this possibility. After all, it wasn't one he was confronted with very often, after all, despite what had once been his dream. "I... don't think we've met?"

"Oh, we haven't," Chiho said brightly, and let go of Shirou's hand long enough to push him towards the elder man. "But this guy seems to think you have."

"... Hello," he said, a bit uncertain of what was expected of him. Time was passing, however, and he would have to say something else soon. "... thank you for helping me."

Kiritsugu looked down at Shirou for a moment, as if doing so would cause an answer to appear any further. Luckily, however, this seemed to be the case as recognition passed over Kiritsugu's face and the smallest of smiles appeared.

"Ah, I'm glad to see that you've recovered," he said warmly, and bent down to his level to give him a tired smile. "I'd hoped for the best when they wouldn't allow me to visit you, but it's nice to see that you made it out ."

"You tried to visit me?" Shirou said curiously. A memory came back to him of the first time he had met Takami, and with it came a name. "Are you Emiya Kiritsugu?"

The man seemed surprised by this.

"I- yes. Yes I am," the newly introduced Emiya Kiritsugu said, sounding a bit uncertain as to how to proceed. "How do you-"

"_Daaad_, we have to finish unpacking!" a little girl's voice shouted, and a moment later said little girl hopped out of the carrying a ridiculously large stack of boxes. "Stop talking to those weirdos and help!"

Whatever the man had been about to ask Shirou was forgotten as Kiritsugu gave a light chuckle and rose to his full stature once more.

"Ahah, you'll have to excuse my daughter," he apologized on her behalf. "She can be a bit willful at times."

"_Daaad!_" the girl protested, and dropped her boxes on the ground (there was a loud 'crunch' as something fragile, ancient and quite possibly priceless was broken) in order to put her hands on her waist in a childish display of anger. "Don't say that sort of thing in front of strangers!"

"If you don't like it, you shouldn't give me the opportunity to do so," Kiritusugu admonished her in return. "Patience and reservation will serve you better than impatience and a lack of manners, Ilyasviel. You would be best served by displaying such qualities."

The girl huffed petulantly, and then folded her arms and deigned to look at the person her father had been talking to just a moment before. Thoroughly unimpressed with what she was seeing, she nevertheless gave a brief sigh of annoyance before resigning herself to conversing.

"... So, you know my dad?" she asked, sounding thoroughly disinterested.

Shirou, however, was not one to pick up on subtlety, even the not-so-subtle kind. So he didn't hesitate for a moment before answering without a hint of annoyance.

"Yes," he said earnestly. "He saved me from dying."

Ilyasviel blinked in surprise at this, and then broke into a wide smile.

"Hehe," she laughed happily, and beamed happily at her father. "Yeah, he's the greatest, right?"

"... he's as good as my onee-chans," he answered diplomatically.

"Eh?!" Ilyasviel grunted in annoyance at this, displeased with the notion that her father might _not_ be a pillar of the universee. "What do you mean, 'as good as'?! What makes them so great?"

"Because they're my onee-chans," Shirou stated, which earned him a pair of 'awws' and a fond ruffling of his hair.

"What? That's not a reason at all!"

"Yes it is," Shirou countered calmly. After spending so much time tolerating Kusano, it was strangely easy for him.

"No it isn- Stop that!" the little girl shouted, realizing that she was going down a road that would inevitably lead to a rapid exchange of 'nuh-uh!' and 'uh-huh!'. She refused to be brought down to such a level. "Fine then! I'll solve this once and for all! From now on, I'm your sister too! That means that my dad is the best!"

"Eh?" Shirou grunted in surprise "How, wh- _what?_"

Now, it should be said that, as an elder sister, there are certain _responsibilities_ that needed to be observed. Certain obligations that needed to be fulfilled.

And one of the most important of them was to mercilessly tease their younger siblings.

It was an instinct so intrinsic and primal that even aliens possessed it.

Uzume, in fact, possessed it in spades.

"Hehe," she chuckled, grinning mischievously. "You work quick, bro!"

Even Chiho had it, though of course to a lesser degree.

"Oh my, Shirou," she said, and held a hand to her cheek in mock despair. "I had no idea that you would replace us with someone else so quickly!"

Shirou, for his part, was largely immune to such things as 'irony' and 'mockery'. They required an understanding that Shirou had not quite yet mastered.

So when he heard this, there was only one way he could interpret it: literally.

"What? But- no! That's not true, Chiho-nee!" he cried out in dismay.

This was to Uzume what blood in the water was to sharks.

"Oh, whatever shall we do, Chiho?" she lamented theatrically, seeming to swoon into Chiho's arms. "Our own little Shirou has abandoned us so soon after we adopted him! Oh, the betrayal! Oh, the heartbreak!"

"_No!_" The boy refuted desperately. "Uzume-nee, don't believe it!"

If Chiho had been a less kind person, she might have continued on in this vein. As it was, however, she took pity on him and decided to end this bout of teasing before it could get any worse.

Which wasn't to say that she wouldn't exploit it while the opportunity was there, however.

"Oh, I suppose that the only thing that Shirou-kun could do to prove his love is to hurry to his first day of school with us before he's late," Hidaka Chiho said, thus proving that even when nice an elder sibling is always manipulative.

Uzume, though somewhat annoyed that her fun was being cut short, nevertheless played along with her Ashikabi.

"Ah!" she gasped, quickly latching onto this new idea. "That's right! Shirou-kun _knows_ how important it is to us that he goes to school, doesn't he?"

As has been noted before, Shirou wasn't exactly the brightest star in the sky when it came to picking up on the subtle cues of others, and so without a moment's hesitation he leaped on this new chance to prove his devotion.

"Chiho-nee, Uzume-nee!" He said, grabbing both their hands. "We have to hurry! We need to get to school!"

And with that the three of them were off once more, though Chiho took a moment to turn back and wave a farewell at them.

Emiya Kiritsugu and his daughter watched them go with bemused interest, neither one speaking until the three turned a corner and vanished from sight.

"Well, they're a strange group," Kiritsugu said at last.

"Kinda, yeah," Ilyasviel agreed, and grinned. "But they seem pretty of fun."

"'fun'?" her father repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah!" the little girl eagerly affirmed. "Like they haven't got a care in the world."

Kiritsugu looked at her for a moment, and then sighed melancholically.

"... Well, it's nice that the world is like that for some people, I suppose," he said wryly.

Ilyasviel seemed to pick up on his souring mood, and placed her tiny fists on her hips in mock-irritation.

"Didn't you save Shirou-nii from a fire?" she asked rhetorically, and without waiting for an answer she continued. "_And_ isn't he why we moved here in the first place? To make sure that nothing bad had happened to him?"

"... point taken, Ilya-chan," Kiritsugu admitted with wan smile. "And I see that you've taken your earlier proclamation seriously."

"Of course!" Ilyasviel agreed happily, and bent over to pick up her unreasonably large pile of boxes once again. "Because everyone needs to know how great you are!"

Emiya Kiritsugu's smile faded at that, dying at the edges.

"I'm glad you think so, Ilya-chan," he said, and resumed packing away his belongings.

He wondered briefly if he should invite young Shirou and his sisters back sometime. It might do his daughter good to have a family like them around to balance against his own melancholy.

But that was a thought for another day.

For now, he was merely glad that the boy was fine, and adjusting well to life as a normal child.

Well, relatively normal. He was pretty sure that most children weren't raised by something so obviously Not Human.

* * *

**AN:** There.

It's done.

Next up: Fate/Stay Shrike

Except no.

Really.

That's not happening.

_Ever_.

Trollface.


End file.
